Unstable economyworthy of concern

6:01 PM,
Feb. 15, 2013

Written by

Brian Solik

"The end of the decline of the stock market will probably not be long, only a few more days at most," predicted Yale economics professor Irving Fisher on Nov. 14, 1929, about two weeks after the market began to crash. Not to be outdone, President Herbert Hoover had this to say to a group of businessmen in June 1930: "The Depression is over."

Anyone who has ever listened to Wall Street analysts, economists and politicians will have noticed that they are often dead wrong in their stock market predictions.

What makes this whole matter difficult is that stocks can sometimes perform well in a given year ...